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Less than a month before Joe Biden moves into the White House, Russian President Vladimir Putin said on Wednesday that he did not expect much change in Moscow’s ties with Washington, while his advisers said they were less optimistic.
Biden is expected to take a tougher stance against Russia than Donald Trump, whose rise to the U.S. presidency in 2016 was riddled with accusations of Russian interference to fuel his campaign.
Putin was one of the last leaders to congratulate Biden on his election victory, sending his congratulatory message six weeks after the November 3 vote and saying he was ready for “collaboration.”
On Wednesday, Putin told officials that he did not expect any change in relations with the United States after Biden took office, speaking after the president-elect promised to punish Russia for a major cyber attack.
“Now about the change of leadership in the United States and that it will be more difficult for us. I don’t think so. It will be as usual,” Putin said in a meeting with lawmakers and government officials.
He spoke after senior Russian officials said they expected nothing “good” from the Biden administration.
Putin’s spokesman Dmitry Peskov, speaking to reporters Wednesday morning, said the Kremlin did not expect “anything positive” from ties with Washington.
Vice Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov made a similar note.
“We are definitely not expecting anything good,” Ryabkov said in an interview with the Interfax news agency.
“And it would be strange to expect good things from people, many of whom made their careers in Russophobia and throw mud at my country,” he added.
Washington has recently accused Russia of a major cyber attack on government agencies, a claim that Moscow has denied.
Biden said Tuesday that the attack cannot go “unanswered,” and vowed to retaliate once he takes office on January 20.
The president-elect of the United States also accused Trump of downplaying the severity of the attack.
New START agreement, Iran
Russia and the United States have a litany of problems to solve after the transition of power in Washington.
Tensions have raged for months over the fate of New START, which limits the number of nuclear warheads held by Washington and Moscow and expires in February 2021.
No agreement has been reached on the extension of the last major nuclear arms reduction agreement between Russia and the United States.
The Iran nuclear deal has also been on the brink of collapse since Trump withdrew in 2018 and imposed crippling economic sanctions on Tehran.
Ryabkov said Moscow should adopt a “total containment” approach to relations with the United States and maintain a “selective dialogue” on issues of interest to Russia.
Both Peskov and Ryabkov said that Russia would not initiate any contact with Biden’s transition staff.
‘From bad to worse’
Referring to new US sanctions imposed this week on 45 Russian organizations for their military connections, Ryabkov said the outgoing administration was trying to “shut the door out loud.”
“We are going from bad to worse,” Ryabkov said.
Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov promised a response to the new sanctions on Wednesday, saying the United States “has long pursued a hostile policy” toward Russia.
Despite initial hopes that ties between Moscow and Washington could improve with Trump, Russia’s relations with the United States have continued to deteriorate over the course of his presidency, reaching their lowest point since the end of the Cold War.
The Trump administration imposed sanctions on Russia and withdrew from a Cold War-era arms control pact, the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces (INF) treaty, leaving the two countries at risk of a new arms race. .
More recently, the US administration announced that it would close the two remaining consulates in Russia, leaving the Moscow embassy as the last US diplomatic mission in the country.
Despite the tensions, Putin expressed hope that Biden’s arrival in office would be an opportunity to improve bilateral relations.
During his year-end press conference last week, Putin said he hoped that some existing problems “will be resolved under the new administration.”
But the Russian leader also criticized the “aggressive” West, saying Russia was “warm and tender” by comparison. -French Media Agency
